Conventionally, a data communication receiver, such as a pager, receives selective call messages for subsequent presentation to a user carrying the pager. A selective call message is originated when a message originator, i.e., a person desiring to send a selective call message, provides message information and a paging address associated with a pager to a paging terminal. The paging terminal thereafter encodes the paging address and the message information into a selective call message for radio frequency (RF) transmission within a geographic area. If located within the geographic area, the pager having the paging address receives the selective call message and decodes the message information contained therein, subsequent to which the reception of the selective call message is announced, perhaps by generation of an audible alert, to the user. The user may choose to view the message information upon reception or at a later time.
The message information may be, for example, a telephone number which the user must dial to contact the message originator. Thereafter, the message originator may convey important information to the user. If the pager has voice or alphanumeric capabilities, the message information may include a textual or voice message, thereby eliminating the need for the user to telephone the message originator. In this latter case, a message originator may send message information to which the user need not respond. A message originator may, for instance, send message information to a pager user simply informing the user of upcoming events, such as meetings or deadlines.
Upon reception of a selective call message containing this type of message information, the user may choose to make note of the time at which the upcoming event, such as a meeting or an appointment, occurs, especially if the message information is received a long time before the event is to take place. The user may, for example, mark the time of the event in a diary or a calendar. If the user has access to a personal computer, the time may be noted by entering it into an appointment book kept by the computer. Thereafter, at the time entered by the user, the computer may automatically generate an alert, such as an audible tone, to remind the user of the event.
However, noting the time of an event, such as a meeting, in a diary or computer does not necessarily guarantee that a pager user will remember the event. For instance, the user could accidentally note the time of the event incorrectly in his diary or simply forget to reference his diary. If he has entered the correct time in his computer, the automatic alert generated by the computer could occur during a time when the user is not located near the computer. Furthermore, if the user receives the selective call message including the time of the event when he is away from his diary or computer, he could forget to note the time of the event entirely. Therefore, manual entry of an event in a diary or a computer does not always ensure that the user will receive a reminder or remember the event.
Thus, what is needed is a data communication receiver which receives a selective call message including a reminder time for selectively alerting a user to remind him of an upcoming event. Furthermore, the data communication receiver should be able to transfer the reminder time to a host computer such that the host computer may thereafter automatically alert the user at the reminder time.